The Reich Will Never Be Destroyed

Following the failure of the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch, Adolf Hitler found himself in prison and his party, the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (more commonly known, and hereafter referred to, as the Nazi party), officially disbanded. Despite the severity of the would-be revolutionaries’ offense, and despite the fact that charges of treason could be punished with death, Hitler served a rather short prison sentence, and within a few years of his release in 1924, he and his cronies had rebuilt the Nazi party and settled on a new means of obtaining power – legally, through the ballot box. In other words, the Nazis would work within the constitutional framework of the parliamentary system to gain a majority in the Reichstag, and from there they would eliminate competing political parties and views, thereby assuming complete control of the German state, with Hitler at the party’s helm.

The election of 1933 would prove to be decisive in German history, in that it was the last contested election in Germany until after the end of World War II. By that point, Hitler had been appointed to the post of Chancellor of Germany, a position which is roughly equivalent to that of Prime Minister in many parliamentary democracies (such as Great Britain, for example). Despite holding such a prominent and potentially powerful office, however, Hitler could not move unilaterally to impose the order he wished to see upon German society; this was because the Nazis did not control a majority of seats in the Reichstag. As a result, any action that Hitler might have tried to take as Chancellor would have been subjected to immense scrutiny from the majority party or coalition, and could easily have been stopped. Thus it was of the utmost importance for the Nazis to gain as many seats as possible.

This poster, published during the 1933 Reichstag election, shows then-President Paul von Hindenburg and then-Chancellor Hitler looking in a determined fashion at the camera (or the viewer). The caption in red reads: “The Reich will never be destroyed if you are united and loyal.” The large number 1 and the word “Nationalsozialisten” refer to the Nazi party’s first position on the ballot. Von Hindenburg was widely seen as a war hero for his efforts on Germany’s behalf during World War I; as such, the fact that he is portrayed alongside Hitler on this poster suggests that the Nazi party sought to create an association in the minds of the German electorate between their own ideals and those which the venerated figures of World War I stood for. Hitler’s right ear covers a small portion of von Hindenburg’s face, which indicates that his photograph has been placed in the foreground. This juxtaposition suggests that while the “old guard” which von Hindenburg represents is to be venerated, the Nazis and their ideology must take precedence.

In conjunction with the underhanded tactics which the Nazis employed during the 1933 election, this poster seems to have been reasonably effective. While they were unable to secure an outright majority in the Reichstag, they did become the single largest party in that assembly, and they were also able to form a coalition with several other right-wing parties, thereby gaining at least some of the power which they sought.